Worthy Is The Lamb Part 2: Revelation 5 - Revelation: The Apocalypse

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Listen, church, you are not worthy of anything and of yourself.

I said to the Cowboy Church here this morning this that you know what qualifies you to be a Jesus disciple is actually your unworthiness.

You can never be good enough, but you can always be bad enough to follow Jesus.

Because you'll never ever be good enough.

Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the Book of Revelation.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We are in the book of Revelation.

If you're new with us today, we're in the book of Revelation.

We teach the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

And we are in Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

I don't know how long we're going to be in it.

We were supposed to be in it one week, but then God showed up last week and we only got like a few verses.

So I'm going to read the first part that we've already covered.

We're looking at heaven.

We're looking at what's happening in heaven.

We've been going through Revelation.

Let me give you my thesis here this morning.

My thesis is this: what the church needs today is not only the redeeming Lamb of God, but also the prevailing lion of Judah.

Let me repeat that.

What the church needs today is not just the redeeming lamb of God, parenthetically for salvation, but also the prevailing lion of Judah.

The redeeming lamb gets you in, but the prevailing lion gets you on.

And many believers get stuck, and most churches today get stuck with the redeeming lamb, which is salvation.

It's wonderful.

That's fantastic, but they never graduate into the prevailing lion of Judah.

Men and women, you cannot prevail without an understanding and a worldview and an intimate relationship with the Lion of Judah.

The Lion of Judah wants to battle for you.

The Lion of Judah wants to see you in your lifetime conquer areas of addiction and sin through his power and not through your own.

And so Revelation 5 gives us a glimpse into this prevailing lion of Judah and simultaneously the redeeming Lamb of God.

In other words, you can't have the prevailing lion without the redeeming Lamb.

Do you understand that?

You've got to get in.

And for you here this morning that have never given your heart to Christ and never come to understand him, you don't know the redeeming Lamb.

And until you know the Redeeming Lamb, you can't know the prevailing lion.

And so the prevailing lion of Judah is a result of coming into a personal relationship with the redeeming Lamb of God.

So let's start at the first verse.

We'll read parts we've already covered, and then we'll come to the next part.

And I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

We're about to go into.

In the next few weeks, we're going to get into the seals being opened over the tribulation period over the earth.

Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?

And we're going to answer that in the weeks to come.

And no one, this is interesting, no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it.

Verse 4.

So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it.

But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep.

Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.

Listen, don't miss this, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.

Now that's the rest of Revelation, church.

So we've been looking at the, we've been looking at the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.

Well, now, from this period on, and for months ahead, as we go into the new year, we're going to be looking at this tribulation period in the opening of the seals, and we're going to see, like no other place in all the scripture, what the Lion of Judah is up to, and who the Lion of Judah is.

And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all of the earth.

Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

So the slain Lamb of God has become the prevailing lion.

This Lamb of God who takes the scroll that no one in heaven or on earth can open, only the prevailing lion, only the Lamb of God can open, is going to open up the scroll of the seven seals upon the church.

And from chapter six onward, men and women, we are going to go through an intelligence report from heaven.

God's briefing of what it's going to be like in the latter days.

How many of you look around at what's happening in our country and what's happening in the world with a huge question mark like, I've never seen this before.

Now, some of you are young enough that what you haven't seen very much before doesn't add up to a whole lot.

But I mean, but for some of us who are a little bit older, we've got a little bit of history, you know?

And we're looking at this thing like we do not have answers.

And recently I was talking to someone, and he said, you know, the thing that's cool and exciting about what's happening is you really aren't going to have a savior in the Republican Party.

And you really aren't going to have a savior in the Democratic Party.

And you're really not going to have a political answer that's going to come out of Washington, it's going to change a lot.

We have to face the reality that Jesus Christ is the answer.

And that the best thing he's done, as messed up as it can be at times, is the Church of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Listen, filled with the Holy Spirit and rooted in the Word.

We've got to be a spirit alive, word-rooted, listen, culturally changing church.

We're here to change things.

We're here to prevail against Satan and his demonic powers, and they're all around us.

Look at verse 8.

Now, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders, and we don't know who they are, and we're not clear in scripture who the 24 elders are, but there's these 24 elders, are the apostles, or are 12 of them the apostles?

We don't know.

There are a lot of different opinions about that.

Fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense.

How weird is that?

So each of them, I mean, they're all musicians, I guess, or they learned it when they got up there.

Some of you are musicians now, and some of you will be musicians later.

If you're like me, you're not a musician now.

When y'all did the auditions and stuff, uh, Marcus never had a place for someone who can do the harmonica.

For the saints go marching in, is the only song that they could do their audition with.

But they're gonna have a harp and golden bowls of incense.

Then there's a comma, which are the prayers of the saints.

And so last week I shared this idea of harp and bowl is something we believe in at the road.

That it's the idea that worship and prayer go together.

There's something mighty about worship and prayer going together.

I mean, that's a new thing that's really only come about in probably the last 25 years.

I remember hearing about the concept of harp and bowl something like 25 years ago, and go, what is that?

And um, and then started doing it, and we do it here.

We have war rooms.

We have 24 hours, we've had two 24-hour war rooms where all night we've got a room back here, and people sign up, and we're doing one October 29th and 30th 30th, we're doing our next one.

But but we come in there and you sign up, you know, and then we've got a worship leader in there leading worship, and then they're praying, and we're worshiping, we're praying, we're worshiping.

And and you guys really, really pray.

I mean, I love that.

I've been in I've been in situations with a harp and ball prayer where I don't, nobody seems to ever pray, but this church prays.

I mean, some of you scream and cry out to God.

And and you know what?

That's incense up to the Lord.

He loves that.

And some of you emotionally get so and so into your prayers that you cry out and maybe sometimes it even makes other people uncomfortable.

Guess what?

There's one person in heaven that's never uncomfortable with those prayers, and that's Jesus.

And you pray with your whole heart.

We talk about building whole-hearted disciples here.

Pray with your whole heart.

You're always invited.

I remember last week I said, come and just pray over the premises here.

Come anytime during the week you want to.

The door will be locked, so you can't always get in because there's a preschool here and all that.

But um, but come and pray the just prayer walk.

And I saw these three ladies this week out in the parking lot.

What are they doing?

They're sitting there talking and then they're gone.

And then, like an hour later, they come back and they're talking.

They're ladies, they're talking.

Okay?

And um, so I went out and I saw Betty Garcia said, Betty, what are you guys doing here?

She says, You told us to prayer walk, so we came to prayer walk.

And and it was awesome.

And they met, this lady invited them into their home, and it was super cool.

So, prayer walk, worship.

You know, take your put in your earphones, worship the Lord while you prayer walk, but let's claim this ground for the Lord.

For some reason, he's got us here.

This is our territory, this is God's territory.

And every one of these families up in here need Jesus.

And um, and I'm not saying that you need to be totally geographical, because people are coming, you guys are coming from all over the city, and that's awesome.

But I'm just saying there's something about the ground.

And we prayer-walk the ground, and so, and they sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You know what I love about this?

There's gonna be sushi in heaven.

There will be sushi in heaven.

There will be Mexican food in heaven, there will be spaghetti in heaven.

There will be stroganoff in heaven.

I'm in the Japanese section, because that's what I did, okay?

That's who I get to hang out with.

But I want you to notice something.

Look back at the very beginning.

We covered this more last week and the week before.

This idea, look at verse 4, I wept because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll.

So remember at the beginning of the first chapter of the revelation of John, he says, when he was in that cave on the island of Patmos, he said, I was in the Spirit when he had this revelation, this apocalypse.

So even in the spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, on the Lord's day, so it was probably a Sunday morning, that John had this revelation on the island of Patmos, this volcanic island out in the Mediterranean.

He has this, he has this vision, he's not even worthy to open the scroll.

No one in heaven, no seraphim, no cherubim, no angels, nobody but the Lamb of God is worthy to open the scroll.

You are not worthy in and of yourself.

Listen, church, you are not worthy of anything and of yourself.

I said to the cowboy church here this morning this that you know what qualifies you to be a Jesus disciple is actually your unworthiness.

You can never be good enough, but you can always be bad enough to follow Jesus.

Because you'll never ever be good enough.

Luther tried.

Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk, and he took literally what he read in Scripture and he gave everything he had to find the righteousness of God through a holy God in his life.

He fasted and he prayed.

He went to cathedrals and he crawled on his knees before a spectacle to the other monks, and a spectacle to those that were in leadership in the Roman Catholic Church at that time, and he crawled and he begged God for forgiveness for his sins.

He climbed huge towers to try to find righteousness in his life, because he read such passages as, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

He read such passages that say, Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

So year after year he cried out to God and he beat himself, and the blood flowed, and he went to confession four, five, six times a day.

And then one day in seeking God, he came to Romans 1.17.

Romans 1.17 says, the righteousness of God, or some translations say the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just or the righteous shall live by faith.

And a light went on in Luther's heart, and he came to understand that he was never going to be able to attain being worthy before God.

As he later wrote, he said, quote, No one can keep the law of God from the bottom of their heart.

The conclusion is that at the bottom of our heart we hate the law.

But by faith he could know the righteousness of Christ.

He later wrote, faith alone makes us righteous.

Let me say it again.

Faith alone makes us righteous and fulfills the law.

For out of Christ's merit, that's really important, out of Christ's merit, parenthetically, not out of our merit, out of Christ's merit, it brings the Spirit.

And the Spirit makes the heart glad and free, as the law requires.

Thus, good works come out of faith.

This pleasure and love for the law is put into a man's heart by the Holy Spirit.

And so Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, said, Therefore, we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy.

Count you worthy of this calling.

And fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power.

So what Luther discovered was that he had no innate power within himself.

That's where you got to be so careful, men and women, with certain kinds of teachings out there that seem to be more about self-driven faith versus God-driven or God-imparted faith.

Luther discovered he didn't have it and he would never have it.

As a matter of fact, at the very bottom of his heart, he actually hated God.

He hated the law.

Yet he wanted God.

And he wanted the law.

And so the law was created by God, Galatians says that we actually would come to the end of ourself.

And by faith have to trust in him.

And so Luther continues.

Faith is a divine work in us.

It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God.

It kills the old Adam and makes altogether different men in heart and spirit and mind and power.

And it brings the Holy Spirit.

Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man will stake his very life on it a thousand times.

Hence, a man is ready and glad, without compulsion, to do good to everyone, to serve anyone, to suffer anything in love and praise of God who has shown us this grace.

That awesome.

Man.

If everything in the Lutheran church is like that, I'd become a Lutheran, you know.

For by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works that no man should boast.

So we are not worthy in and of ourselves, but when we put our faith in Christ, we put our trust in his merit and his finished work at Calvary, you become worthy.

You are worthy.

You are worthy, though, in Christ.

Giving up self-confidence, dying to self-confidence, surrendering to self-confidence, and entering into God confidence through the power and the love of Jesus Christ and the work of his Holy Spirit.

And so now we see that the 24 elders have a harp and this incense going up, which are the prayers of the saints.

And so Hebrews says this let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So, men and women, you can boldly now, in Christ, being filled with the Holy Spirit, in his merit, ask God for stuff.

That's what prayer is.

Prayer, in my definition, is asking and receiving.

That's what prayer is.

Prayer is asking and receiving.

Just go through the gospel.

Look how Jesus describes prayer.

Prayer is asking and receiving.

Prayer is seeking, prayer is knocking, prayer is crying out.

The Psalms are full of these kind of prayers laced with worship.

And sometimes, especially in the Psalms and many of the songs that we sing now that Marcus leads us in and Troy and others, those are worship songs of prayer.

In other words, we are taking our prayers and we're making it actually into worship songs.

And that's where it comes from.

It's right here in Scripture.

That's what they do in heaven.

So every time we we pray and we call out to God in our personal unworthiness, but in his worthiness, meriting his power working through us, it's incense to the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

You can ask for stuff.

With the faith of a what?

Mustard seed, you can remove mountains.

That makes no sense if you're doing it in your own power and in your own flesh.

That makes complete sense if it's Jesus Christ praying through you.

Isn't that exciting?

I signed up for that.

And then he says, You have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.

Now that I believe that's a present promise in limited form and a complete promise in future form.

It's a limited promise in the sense that we have obstacles, we have demonic powers, we have satanic powers on the earth, you're going to get sick sometimes.

You're going to pray and not get well.

I don't care what anybody says, there's going to be times where it's difficult.

You're going to have autistic children.

You're going to have kids that have issues.

You're going to have bipolar situations.

And yes, we pray, and sometimes people get healed, but they don't always get healed.

And so it is, it is the kingdom that we cry out for, but you still die.

And so, you know, when I hear this other thing, oh, it's just because of the lack of faith.

And then the guy who's telling me that's wearing glasses.

I'm sorry, dude.

What's with the glasses thing?

You know?

Well, the reality is, not to limit our faith, but just to say that's the reality of where we live, there are mountains that you can still conquer with healing and power that is supernatural.

We see supernatural.

Healings here on a regular basis.

Now, why do some people get healed and some don't get healed?

I don't know.

And do not, if you email me that question, I'm going to say, I do not know.

I'll already tell you the answer.

I do not know.

And guess what?

Some of it is related to your faith.

See, that's the conundrum of the whole thing, is some of it is related to your faith.

Because you don't trust God, you don't see God show up in mighty and powerful ways.

So part of being in the Word, and the reason I believe we're an expositional church, is because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

And so the more we're, listen, the more you're in the Word, minute, the more you'll prevail.

So you've been made kings.

And so here's the reality is that the scripture indicates that God's going to make a new heaven, a new earth.

Another reason why we're studying Revelation.

So cool as we get down to Revelation 20 onward.

So this new heaven and this new earth, and we are going to rule over territory in the new heaven and the new earth based on the rewards of the life you lived on earth before Christ came back.

So if you want to, if you want a little caddyshack with Bill Murray, then just don't do anything.

If you want to walk and see God give you the opportunity for eternity future to be a king and a priest with him, then go for it.

This is the life.

And guess what?

It's a battle and it's a fight.

Let me tell you what I think.

I think everybody's been given three T's: talent, territory, and a trust.

Talent, territory, and a trust.

Every one of you have talent.

Some of you are administrators, some of you are evangelists, some of you are in the area of worship, some of you are going to be pastors and teachers, some of you are gifted in many different ways.

Some of you are engineers, some of you are chemists, some of you are doctors, some of you are lawyers.

God has gifted you a certain way.

Now, that's a talent that comes from God, but then he also gives you a trust.

And that is that you're a missionary to someplace, somewhere, with what you've been given.

You're to be a witness for Christ.

And that is through the territory that he's given us.

He's given us a territory.

And so that territory is related to the trust and the talent.

And God's called me, after many years in Asia, to be in Colorado Springs.

That's my territory.

This is where I'm going to be, and this is probably where I'm going to die, is right here in Colorado Springs.

And so I find myself constantly asking God for revival and awakening in Colorado Springs.

And in Colorado, I ask for God all the time.

God, I want revival in the churches and I want awakening in the city.

I want revival in the churches, awakening city.

May it spread all the way up through the Rockies.

Rock the Rockies.

And this is true for every one of you.

You've been given a territory.

Some of you, right now, because you're a young mom and young fathers, your territory is largely your family.

And that you're supposed to love that family and you're supposed to disciple those kids, and your home should be a training center.

This church is a training center, you're a training center for your kids.

You are a training center.

Now that doesn't mean you just become insulated and all you do is your family, but it means that with our family, we are not ditching them to go do ministry.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

We take them along with us.

And so, and so I saw it tons on the mission field where I saw missionaries that were, you know, ditching their family to go do God's work.

And then people like me was speaking at these conferences and stuff for MKs, missionary kids.

I'm going, this is not my job.

And so we love our families, we prevail with our families, but also in cases where with those with our jobs and stuff, there's something there, there's a territory there that God wants to use you in a mighty way.

I mean, I'm not getting a soapbox and preach to people, but I'm talking about through relationships and building, God's given you a talent, He's given you territory, He's giving you trust.

And if you're faithful at it, He'll give you more.

Listen, church, if you're faithful with what you'd be given, He'll give you more.

I don't want more.

Yeah, you will, because He'll give you the desire too for more.

And it'll be exciting.

Can I tell you about five weapons?

I want to tell you about five weapons of prevailing as a priest and king.

Five weapons that I feel like are scriptural and through experience, Liz and I found to be true in our lives.

Five weapons for prevailing as a priest and king.

Number one, prevailing through putting on the armor of God.

Number one, prevailing through putting on the armor of God.

God has given us in Ephesians 6 the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the belt of truth, and the shodding with our feet with the gospel of peace.

When we put it on every day, literally saying it out loud, Lord, I put on the helmet of salvation.

Lord, would you guide my mind to think God thoughts?

God, I put on the breastplate of righteousness which covers my heart.

Men and women, guard your heart, for what flows from your heart is the substance of life.

The issues of life flow from your heart.

Guard your heart.

Watch your heart.

Lord, I put on the belt of truth.

Guess what?

Truth always conquers over deceit and falsehood.

Listen, this is important.

Don't miss this.

John, and I believe the apostles, coming from their model, Jesus, did not make the prevailing issue of his ministry conquering sin and coming against unrighteousness, but rather love and the power of the Holy Spirit in changing lives.

To the belt of truth.

Shield of faith.

I think it's interesting.

It's the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, or the kind of the defense and the offense of the soldier of the Lord, because faith comes from the sword.

Faith comes by hearing.

So it's Lord, I'm going to read your word today.

And we, you know, if you've got the bookmark.

If you haven't gotten our bookmark, get one before you leave.

We have a bookmark.

Every day, everybody in the church is reading the same passage, and we're going through that thing together.

So, Sword of the Spirit and the shodding of our feet with the gospel of peace.

So God wants us to be peacemakers.

It's really hard to be the to speak the good news when you're the bad news.

So be a peacemaker.

Secondly, prevailing through prayer and worship.

Secondly, prevailing through prayer and worship.

Now we did that.

When I came in, there was a beautiful, powerful worship time happening as Marcus and the team were leading us.

But men and women, quite frankly, with the way technology is today, you can do that anywhere, anytime.

You can do it in your vehicle, you can do it at home in your study, you can do it in your closet.

You can worship the Lord and have beautiful, beautiful music from the best worship teams in the whole world right at your disposal.

And let me tell you, that was when I was a kid, that wasn't possible.

I had a little hymnal.

I remember that was like a big thing from Singspiration.

Probably never heard of Singh, but Sing Spiration.

Sing Spiration had this little hymn.

I still have it.

I got two of them.

I gave one to Liz and I have my own and still got it.

And you sang hymns.

And that was just at the beginning of the kind of the Calvary Chapel movement and Marinata Music, and that was stuff.

And now there's 50 labels.

I know it's 50, 75 labels of worship out there.

And so we can worship the Lord and pray constantly.

Thirdly, prevailing through power from the word, believing truth.

So truth comes from the word.

And so it's spending time, it's meditating in the word.

Who here wants to be successful at what you do?

Who here wants to prosper at what you do?

Psalm 1, Joshua 1 say the way to success and prosperity is meditating in the word.

Isn't that crazy?

Waste your life in the Word.

We need more people who just want to waste their life before the Lord.

I mean, Martha is busy getting everything ready for Jesus, and I dig it because I'm more of a Martha than a Mary big time, and I like Martha.

Martha's, she's cool.

But the one thing, the one thing Jesus says is from Mary.

And she's at the feet of Jesus and she's listening.

You know, some teach he was worshiping.

She's not worshiping, she's listening.

She's at his feet, she's listening.

Well, you can't listen if you don't have an open book.

And so we open the book and we meditate and we listen.

Psalm 1 is really clear.

Joshua 1 is really clear.

That's the way to prosperity.

Fourthly, prevailing through love and generosity.

Love and generosity has a power of its own.

When we are generous with our time, energy, and money, when we love people, whatever their skin color, whatever their ethnic background.

That's why we started the Springs Initiative to go out and paint those houses.

Was we're showing love to those that most people forget about.

And then fifthly, prevailing through being, and this is important, prevailing through being and preaching the gospel.

You gotta be the gospel before you preach the gospel.

Be the gospel.

Be Jesus.

Live it.

Live it in your work.

Be honest.

Tell the truth.

Even if you don't get that race.

Be different.

Have integrity.

Be honest.

Go to that person that everybody forgets about.

Lift them up.

Maybe it'll cost you something.

That's what Jesus disciples do.

A wholehearted disciple is someone who's wholehearted.

And wholehearted means that we love even with the dark places of our heart.

And then we don't forget where we come from, right?

Look where we were.

I look around.

You guys look great now, but I bet if I saw you 10 years ago, you're a mess, some of you.

Right?

I mean, 32 years ago I was a mess.

Jesus came and he cleaned me up.

He made me different.

Don't forget that.

You meet those people that are all messy.

And they lie and they cheat and they sleep around and da da da.

You were doing that?

I mean, some of you weren't.

I mean, that's great.

You weren't.

I'm not saying you should have.

It's like, oh yeah, I was doing that.

But no, most of us in our heart were doing that, whether we were doing it in our outward life or not.

And don't forget that, and let's lift people up.

That's who Jesus came for.

Today I said, we're talking about Moses in my message to the Cowboy Church, and I just mentioned that in the burning bush situation, what the Lord says, it said the angel of the Lord, it's God, it's pre-incarnate Christ, says to Moses, is, I have seen the oppression and sorrow of my people.

And I said that, and I said this one thing to that group of folks, and I said, God has seen your oppression and your sorrow, and I mean the light was just shining off the tears rolling down this lady's cheeks there in the back.

God was doing something in her life.

And when when people know that God comes for the oppressed, and we see love in Jesus' people, they don't get that from anybody else.

Let's be the gospel and share the gospel.

So, men and women, we're going to someday rule over territory.

I already told you I've claimed the Rockies, this section of the Rockies up here for eternity, so you'll have to claim yours.

And so we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That's how we prevail.

Right?

And he's redeemed us to God by the blood, and out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

And so, men and women, this may sound really heretical, but Republicans will be hugging Democrats.

And Democrats will be hugging Republicans.

And old rifts will be forgotten, and there'll be no discrimination and there'll be no prejudice, and black and white is brothers, Japanese and Koreans coming together, Hooti and Tutsi coming together, and Afrikaners and blacks coming together.

That's where we're headed.

And if you don't like that, you better get over it because that's where you're going if you know Jesus.

And so when we get up there, there's gonna be, we're gonna be, some are gonna be eating with chopsticks, some are I never got used to the eating with the hands thing.

When I'm in India, it's like, oh, give me a fork, please.

You know, but they'll be eating with their hands and forks and all.

I mean, we're gonna be, we're gonna be together as a big family.

And then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne.

The living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands upon thousands.

Now we see a different class of worshipers, of angels, and seraphim and cherubim, millions around the throne.

In the Greek phrase, this is the highest numerical count.

10,000 times 10,000 is the highest numerical count in Greek.

That means there is probably going to be billions in the kingdom.

Do you realize, men and women, that if we look at this from a perspective of demographics, there's more believers alive today on the earth than all the believers since the beginning of civilization combined.

That says to me that when Christ comes back, and as we see the rise of the Antichrist, and as we see the rise of a one-world government, as we begin to see God moving through intense evangelism, intense outreach to the world, we're going to see unprecedented numbers coming into the kingdom.

And they said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

Men and women, worthy comes from the word axios.

It means to weigh as much as, to weigh as much as.

So when they were measuring gold or silver in the marketplace in ancient times, there was called, it was a worthy count when the scales were balanced.

So worthy is the Lamb who comes, the Axios of God, you can never be worthy enough, but he is only the Lamb, the redeeming Lamb, who became the prevailing lion is worthy.

And some of us here, you've been criticized, you've been betrayed, you've been ripped off.

And what you've got to do with that kind of bitterness that can come up is you've got to take that to the foot of the cross, you've got to give it to Jesus, and you've got to say, you know what, I'm not worthy of any honor.

I'm not worthy of anybody's esteem.

You're right.

You know, you're a da-da-da-da-da.

And you go, man, is that all you got?

I got way more stuff on me.

If you only knew, ask her, you know.

But I'm worthy.

And I'm sanctified.

And I'm growing to know and to love because of Jesus Christ.

He's worthy.

He's the axios.

Don't miss that.

And every creature which is in heaven and earth, verse 13, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne.

You know, we've talked about this before, but I'll say it again for you that are new with us, maybe the last few weeks, is that when in Revelation chapter 4, when this revelation, this apocalypse, came to John, he saw Jesus on the throne.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

Guess who's in power on the earth?

Domitian.

Domitian was one of the most evil, despot, emperors of all time.

And he's still on the throne.

Jesus is not in heaven going back and forth, going, what happened to the earth?

Oh, it's not working.

He's on the throne.

Men and women, he's sovereign and he's working out his plan.

And to the Lamb forever and ever.

And the four living creatures said, Amen.

And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him, who lives for and ever and ever.

So, men and women, when we come together right now, we're getting ready to worship the Lord again.

As we do, you know what you're doing?

You're lining up with what's already happening in heaven.

Isn't that cool?

So, you know, I say this often, I'll repeat it again, that a lot of times one of the big questions for us as believers is, what is the will of God?

Or do I know God's will?

And only God and you can answer that.

But here's what I know: that when you come to worship and when you cry out to God in prayer, you're lining yourselves up with the harp and bowl that's happening in heaven right now, and you're in God's will.

For that brief shining moment, you're in God's will.

And that's how God oftentimes downloads information into our heart that is supernatural.

Because you're here.

Because you showed up.

Because you're worshiping Him.

Verse 14 says, four living creatures.

And I get asked sometimes, are there going to be animals in heaven?

We know there's horses because that's what he comes in on in the last days.

I know there's dogs because they definitely are God's blessing to man and man's best friend.

You can kick your dog till the cows come home and they'll still love you.

But I don't know about cats.

I'm not sure if there's cats in heaven.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

We have two little kitties right now.

I fell in love with them, and we're having this discussion about whether we should spay them or not.

I don't want to spay.

I want kittens, man.

I just think they're really cool.

So, to be fair, Jesus said this, Father, I desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me, for you have loved me before the foundation of the world.

This is the only place in Scripture where Jesus says, I desire.

Jesus desires to be with you in heaven.

He desires that you would be in heaven with him and have a personal, vital, dynamic relationship with him for eternity on and eternity past.

And as we get ready to worship right now, and as we go into communion, I want to invite you to come to Christ.

If you've never given your heart to Jesus Christ, give it to him.

We'll have our shepherds and our stewards, those are our elders and deacons that'll be on each side.

You'll see them near the wall.

Go up to them and say, I want to know Christ.

I want to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I want to be in heaven with him.

I know I'm not worthy.

And I want to be worthy because of his work.

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